Indicia reader that simultaneously operates as a point-of-transaction indicia reader and a serial port device

ABSTRACT

An indicia reader system includes: an indicia reader for reading symbol indicia and producing a symbol signal representative of the symbol indicia, the indicia reader capable of transferring and receiving data formatted in a plurality of protocols; a controller capable of transferring and receiving data formatted in a plurality of protocols; and, a translation interface for translating data from the controller which is in a first protocol to a second protocol for receipt by the indicia reader.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to indicia reading devices, and moreparticularly to a method of updating indicia reading devices.

BACKGROUND

Indicia reading devices (also referred to as scanners, readers, etc.)typically read data represented by printed indicia, (also referred to assymbols, symbology, bar codes, etc.) For instance one type of a symbolis an array of rectangular bars and spaces that are arranged in aspecific way to represent elements of data in machine readable form.Indicia reading devices typically transmit light onto a symbol andreceive light scattered and/or reflected back from a bar code symbol orindicia. The received light is interpreted by an image processor toextract the data represented by the symbol. Optical indicia readingdevices typically utilize visible light. Laser indicia reading devicestypically utilize transmitted laser light.

One-dimensional (1D) optical bar code readers are characterized byreading data that is encoded along a single axis, in the widths of barsand spaces, so that such symbols can be read from a single scan alongthat axis, provided that the symbol is imaged with a sufficiently highresolution along that axis.

In order to allow the encoding of larger amounts of data in a single barcode symbol, a number of 1D stacked bar code symbologies have beendeveloped which partition encoded data into multiple rows, eachincluding a respective 1D bar code pattern, all or most all of whichmust be scanned and decoded, then linked together to form a completemessage. Scanning still requires relatively higher resolution in onedimension only, but multiple linear scans are needed to read the wholesymbol.

A class of bar code symbologies known as two dimensional (2D) matrixsymbologies have been developed which offer orientation-free scanningand greater data densities and capacities than 1D symbologies. 2D matrixcodes encode data as dark or light data elements within a regularpolygonal matrix, accompanied by graphical finder, orientation andreference structures. Often times an optical reader may be portable andwireless in nature thereby providing added flexibility. In thesecircumstances, such readers form part of a wireless network in whichdata collected within the terminals is communicated to a host computersituated on a hardwired backbone via a wireless link. For example, thereaders may include a radio or optical transceiver for communicatingwith a network computer.

Conventionally, a reader, whether portable or otherwise, may include acentral processor which directly controls the operations of the variouselectrical components housed within the bar code reader. For example,the central processor controls detection of keyboard entries, displayfeatures, wireless communication functions, trigger detection, and barcode read and decode functionality.

Efforts regarding such systems have led to continuing developments toimprove their versatility, practicality and efficiency.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary partially cutaway side view of an exemplaryindicia reader in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block schematic diagram of an exemplary indicia reader inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block schematic diagram of an exemplary indicia readersystem in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block schematic diagram of an exemplary indicia readersystem in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block schematic diagram of an exemplary indicia readersystem.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made to exemplary embodiments of the inventionwhich are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. This invention,however, may be embodied in various forms and should not be construed aslimited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, theserepresentative embodiments are described in detail so that thisdisclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey thescope, structure, operation, functionality, and potential ofapplicability of the invention to those skilled in the art. Whereverpossible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout thedrawings to refer to the same or like parts. The term “scan” or“scanning” use herein refers to reading or extracting data from aninformation bearing indicia or symbol.

An exemplary indicia reader system in accordance with the invention maybe adapted for reading symbol indicia for numerous functions. A detaileddescription of indicia readers and their operation is disclosed incommonly owned published United States Patent Application PublicationNo. 20030029917 entitled OPTICAL READER FOR IMAGING MODULE and UnitedStates Patent Application Publication No. 20030019934 entitled OPTICALREADER AIMING ASSEMBLY COMPRISING APERTURE, United States PatentApplication Publication No. 20040134989 entitled DECODER BOARD FOR ANOPTICAL READER UTILIZING A PLURALITY OF IMAGING FORMATS which are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an optical indicia reader 112 may have anumber of subsystems for capturing and reading images, some of which mayhave symbol indicia provided therein. Reader 112 may have an imagingreader assembly 114 provided within a head portion or housing 116 whichmay be configured to be hand held by a handle portion 113. A trigger 115may be used to control operation of the reader 112. The head portion 116may have a medial plane MP selected so that the hand-held imager is heldwith the head portion generally in a horizontal plane. The medial planeMP will generally be perpendicular to the face of the scanning head 116.Generally operators have a tendency to hold the medial plane of the headportion of the imager approximately normal to the plane of the targetwhen collecting data. Image reader assembly 114 has imaging receiveoptics 152 having an optical axis (OA) for receiving light reflectedfrom a target T and directing or projecting the reflected light from thetarget T to an image sensor 154. The optical axis is a line of symmetrythrough the imaging optics.

The receive optics 152 has a focal point wherein parallel rays of lightcoming from infinity converge at the focal point. If the focal point iscoincident with the image sensor, the target (at infinity) is “infocus”. A target T is said to be in focus if light from target pointsare converged about as well as desirable at the image sensor.Conversely, it is out of focus if light is not well converged.“Focusing” is the procedure of adjusting the distance between thereceive optics and the image sensor to cause the target T to beapproximately in focus.

The target may be any object or substrate and may bear a 1D or 2D barcode symbol or text or other machine readable indicia. A trigger 115 maybe used for controlling full or partial operation of the reader 112.

Image sensor 154 may be a two-dimensional array of pixels adapted tooperate in a global shutter or full frame operating mode which is acolor or monochrome 2D CCD, CMOS, NMOS, PMOS, CID, CMD, etc. solid stateimage sensor. This sensor contains an array of light sensitivephotodiodes (or pixels) that convert incident light energy into electriccharge. Solid state image sensors allow regions of a full frame of imagedata to be addressed. An exemplary CMOS sensor is model number MT9V022from Micron Technology Inc. or model number VC5602V036 36CLCC fromSTMicroelectronics.

Further description of image sensor operation is provided in commonlyowned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/077,995 entitled “BAR CODEREADING DEVICE WITH GLOBAL ELECTRONIC SHUTTER CONTROL” filed on Mar. 11,2005, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in it's entirety.

In a full frame (or global) shutter operating mode, the entire imager isreset before integration to remove any residual signal in thephotodiodes. The photodiodes (pixels) then accumulate charge for someperiod of time (exposure period), with the light collection starting andending at about the same time for all pixels. At the end of theintegration period (time during which light is collected), all chargesare simultaneously transferred to light shielded areas of the sensor.The light shield prevents further accumulation of charge during thereadout process. The signals are then shifted out of the light shieldedareas of the sensor and read out.

Features and advantages associated with incorporating a color imagesensor in an imaging device, and other control features which may beincorporated in a control circuit are discussed in greater detail inU.S. Pat. No. 6,832,725 entitled “An Optical Reader Having a ColorImager” incorporated herein by reference. It is to be noted that theimage sensor 154 may read images with illumination from a source otherthan illumination source 146, such as by illumination from a sourcelocated remote from the reader.

The output of the image sensor may be processed utilizing one or morefunctions or algorithms to condition the signal appropriately for use infurther processing downstream, including being digitized to provide adigitized image of target T.

Microcontroller 160 may perform a number of functions. The particularsof the functionality of microcontroller 160 may be determined by orbased upon certain parameters which may be stored in memory or firmware.One such function may be controlling the amount of illumination providedby illumination source 146 by controlling the output power provided byillumination source power supply 144. Microcontroller 160 may alsocontrol other functions and devices.

An exemplary microcontroller 160 is a CY8C24223A made by CypressSemiconductor Corporation, which is a mixed-signal array with on-chipcontroller devices designed to replace multiple traditional MCU-basedsystem components with one single-chip programmable device. It mayinclude configurable blocks of analog and digital logic, as well asprogrammable interconnects.

Microcontroller 160 may include a predetermined amount of memory 162 forstoring firmware and data. The firmware may be a software program or setof instructions embedded in or programmed on the microcontroller whichprovides the necessary instructions for how the microcontroller operatesand communicates with other hardware. The firmware may be stored in theflash ROM of the microcontroller as a binary image file and may beerased and rewritten. The firmware may be considered “semi-permanent”since it remains the same unless it is updated. This firmware update orload may be handled by a device driver.

The components in reader 112 may be connected by one or more bus 168 ordata lines, such as an Inter-IC bus such as an I²C bus, which is acontrol bus that provides a communications link between integratedcircuits in a system. This bus may connect to a host computer inrelatively close proximity, on or off the same printed circuit board asused by the imaging device. PC is a two-wire serial bus with asoftware-defined protocol and may be used to link such diversecomponents as the image sensor 154, temperature sensors, voltage leveltranslators, EEPROMs, general-purpose I/O, ND and D/A converters,CODECs, and microprocessors/microcontrollers.

The functional operation of the host processor 118 may involve theperformance of a number of related steps, the particulars of which maybe determined by or based upon certain parameters stored in memory 166which may be any one of a number of memory types such as RAM, ROM,EEPROM, etc. In addition some memory functions may be stored in memory162 provided as part of the microcontroller 160.

One of the functions of the host processor 118 may be to decode machinereadable symbology provided within the target or captured image. Onedimensional symbologies may include very large to ultra-small, Code 128,Interleaved 2 of 5, Codabar, Code 93, Code 11, Code 39, UPC, EAN, andMSI. Stacked 1D symbologies may include PDF, Code 16K and Code 49. 2Dsymbologies may include Aztec, Datamatrix, Maxicode, and QR-code.UPC/EAN bar codes are standardly used to mark retail products throughoutNorth America, Europe and several other countries throughout the worlds.Decoding is a term used to describe the interpretation of a machinereadable code contained in an image projected on the image sensor 154.The code has data or information encoded therein. Information respectingvarious reference decode algorithm is available from various publishedstandards, such as by the International Standards Organization (“ISO”).

Imaging reader assembly 114 may also have an aiming generator lightsource 132, aiming aperture 133, aiming optics 136, an illuminationsource(s) 146 and illumination optics 148.

Illumination and aiming light sources with different colors may beemployed. For example, in one such embodiment the image reader mayinclude white and red LEDs, red and green LEDs, white, red, and greenLEDs, or some other combination chosen in response to, for example, thecolor of the symbols most commonly imaged by the image reader. Differentcolored LEDs may be each alternatively pulsed at a level in accordancewith an overall power budget.

Aiming pattern generator 130 may include a power supply 131, lightsource 132, aperture 133 and optics 136 to create an aiming lightpattern projected on or near the target which spans a portion of thereceive optical system 150 operational field of view with the intent ofassisting the operator to properly aim the scanner at the bar codepattern that is to be read. A number of representative generated aimingpatterns are possible and not limited to any particular pattern or typeof pattern, such as any combination of rectilinear, linear, circular,elliptical, etc. figures, whether continuous or discontinuous, i.e.,defined by sets of discrete dots, dashes and the like.

Generally, the aiming light source may comprise any light source whichis sufficiently small or concise and bright to provide a desiredillumination pattern at the target. For example, light source 132 foraiming generator 130 may comprise one or more LEDs 134, such as partnumber NSPG300A made by Nichia Corporation.

The light beam from the LEDs 132 may be directed towards an aperture 133located in close proximity to the LEDs. An image of this backilluminated aperture 133 may then be projected out towards the targetlocation with a lens 136. Lens 136 may be a spherically symmetric lens,an aspheric lens, a cylindrical lens or an anamorphic lens with twodifferent radii of curvature on their orthogonal lens axis. Alternately,the aimer pattern generator may be a laser pattern generator. The lightsources 132 may also be comprised of one or more laser diodes such asthose available from Rohm. In this case a laser collimation lens (notshown in these drawings) will focus the laser light to a spot generallyforward of the scanning hear and approximately at the plane of thetarget T. This beam may then be imaged through a diffractiveinterference pattern generating element, such as a holographic elementfabricated with the desired pattern in mind. Examples of these types ofelements are known, commercially available items and may be purchased,for example, from Digital Optics Corp. of Charlotte, N.C. among others.Elements of some of these types and methods for making them are alsodescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,790 (Swanson); U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,269(Lin et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,775 (Feldman et al), which arehereby incorporated herein by reference.

Image reader may include an illumination assembly 142 for illuminatingtarget area T. Illumination assembly 142 may also include one or morepower supplies 144, illumination sources 146 and illumination optics148.

A communications module 180 provides a communication link from imagingreader 114 to other imaging readers or to other systems such as hostprocessor 118, memory 166, network 120, or network computer 124.

FIG. 3 illustrates a scanning system configuration in accordance withthe present invention, wherein a plurality of scanners 112 are beingoperated or utilized in a facility, such as a retail store. Each scannermay be in communication (wired or wireless) to a local transactionprocessing system 190, such as cash register. The transaction processingsystems 190 may be in communication (wired or wireless) with a localserver 192. End users, such as retail stores, typically have manyscanners located in an area of proximity. Scanning performance, dataintegrity, user experience, customer experience and down time maycontribute negative effects of not having the same firmware and/orconfiguration parameters common among all scanners being used in thesame application.

FIG. 4 provides a block schematic diagram of a prior art reading devicesystem for connecting a reading device to a terminal using a 4683interface. The reader may attach through a 9A port to a 4683 Serial I/Ointerface which, electrically, is an RS485 interface operating at 187.5Kbits/sec. The reader physically attaches to a connector on a 4683 basecard. The 4683 Serial I/O interface is a multipoint network with eachreader attached to a network having a unique “address”. The method oflogically attaching the reader to the 4683 Operating System is for thereader to appear to the OS as one of the 4683 Async (RS232) Feature Cardports. Therefore, the OS will not know whether it is talking to afeature card async port or a reader. To accomplish this, the reader usesthe same address as one of the feature card async port addresses whencommunicating on the Serial I/O link. The reader understands and acts oncommands sent to it by the OS which the OS thinks are being sent to thefeature card and respond to the OS with the correctly formatted statusand data (as the feature card) would. Application programming supportmay be provided through 4680 BASIC language. Transparency may bemaintained for example such that an application for a feature cardattached RS232 reader may also control a correspondingly configuredreader attached through a 4683 Serial I/O link (RS485). Considerationsfor an end user when attaching a reader via the 4683 Serial I/O (RS485)interface may include that the user configure the system to indicate tothe system that a feature card is installed with an Async (RS232) portselected, even though there may not be a feature card installed.Depending on the configuration of the terminal, the indication may referto a feature card and RS232 device, or to the Serial I/O attached devicewhich is emulating a feature card. An implementer must effectivelyemulate the Async (RS232) logical interface, normally supported byFeature C or D cards, but attach directly to an appropriate 4683 SerialI/O (RS485) tailgate port. The choice of specific port depends on thedesired voltage availability and possible conflicts with other I/Odevices that use the same port. The ports available for the readerattachment to the Serial I/O link are ports 4B, 56, 9A, and 9B. Thesenumbers appear on the tailgate of the main processor board.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary indicia reader or scanner systemconfiguration for remotely upgrading the software of a reader/scannerthat is attached to a host, such as a transaction processing systemusing a 4683 or RS485 interface. The system may be described in terms ofa link layer 212 and a command layer 214 provided in a translationinterface 210. The translation interface 210 provides translationbetween the interface the host 190 (such as a 4683 interface) isutilizing to a protocol the scanner utilizes. The 4683 interface allowsa device to behave like any class of device regardless of its physicalconnection. For example a scanner that is physically connected to a Port9 in the back of a transaction processing system such as a register maylogically behave as a 5B, 9B, or 17 type device. The scanner may alsoact as an asynchronous serial device with a logical address of 64, 65,68, or 69 which will be referred to as “6x.” Due to the separation ofphysical and logical addresses a single device can also logically behaveas two different devices.

An exemplary mode of operation of a handheld scanner is as a “56”device. The 5B interface however is not designed to allow large datatransfers to or from the scanner, wherein the maximum packet size is setat 16 bytes. Because 5 of the bytes are overhead, only 9 bytes can beused for commands and data in each transmission. The process ofdownloading a large file over the 5B interface is therefore very timeconsuming and is not the intended use of the 5B interface.

The translation interface 210 allows a scanner to logically behave asboth a 5B, 9B, or 17 device and an asynchronous serial (port 6x) device.The port 6x protocol is very similar to the port 5B, 9B, and 17protocols that are already implemented in the scanner. The linkdefinition, polling scheme, and logic controls are all shared betweenthe currently implemented protocols and the port 6x protocol.

In an exemplary embodiment, multiple logical devices will share a singlephysical link. Low-level frame handling may be logically separated fromhigher level command processing. Using this configuration, a singlelow-level frame handling object may be created as well as multiplehigher level command-handling objects.

It is contemplated that the indicia reader may be capable of changingthe destination of the reader decoded output data from one port toanother in response to a command received from the host device. Forinstance, the reader may redirect scanned output from the primary portsuch as Port 17 to a secondary port such as Port 69.

The command layer 214 may be comprised of low-level link commandprocessing objects or ports 220-225 may receive data bits and recreatecomplete frames in the device. The link object is then responsible forverifying the integrity of the frame by calculating the CRCs. CRCs arecyclic redundancy check characters. The frame will be passed up to thecommand processing object if the CRCs match.

The low-level object will also be responsible for transmitting framedata to the host 190. The command processing layer 214 will beresponsible for creating its address, send and receive counts, status,and data. The link layer 212 will then create a complete frame by addingCRCs and a terminating flag. The Link Layer 212 output packets may havethe same format.

The command processing object implements the retail (5B, 9B, 17) orasynchronous serial (6x) interfaces with the possibility of havingmultiple instances of this object. Each object will have its owninformation such as: address, send and receive counts, status, internalstate machines, and input and output buffers.

The command handling object will receive frames from the link layer 212after the CRCs have been verified. It will be responsible for monitoringsend and receive counts which may require resending a frame or resettingthe communications. Commands are implemented as described in theindividual protocol specifications. The command handling object willthen update its send and receive counts, status, and append any requireddata which will be sent to the link layer to be output immediately or onthe next poll.

Each port executes system commands without interrupting the operation ofthe other ports. For example, a scanner may act as both a 5B and 68device. A command (such as a Power-On Reset command) received over port5B cannot affect the operation of port 68. Broadcast commands may behandled by both logical ports.

The current port utilized to send output data over is controlled by aconfiguration setting, referred to as the primary port number selection.Barcode data should preferably go over retail ports and menu commanddata over 6x ports. Menu commands may be utilized to enable multipleports.

An exemplary use of the exemplary reader is as the primary or solescanner at a customer point of transaction (POT) in an establishment.Primary may mean the scanner at a POT is used to scan or image itemsmore often than any other scanner or imager at the POT. A transactionmay be any of a number of events that occur between a customer and anestablishment, such as a store. The events may involve such things asexchange of monetary funds, payment for merchandise or service, returnof merchandise, picking up merchandise that has already been paid for,or contracting for a service (such as leasing or renting).

As the primary scanner, merchandise with indicia can be read by it sothat data decoded therefrom may be used for a stock keeping system (suchas SKU) functionality such as sales, price look up, inventory, etc.

SKU is a common term for a unique numeric identifier, used most commonlyin online business to refer to a specific product in inventory or in acatalog. A SKU is an identifier that is used by merchants to permit thesystematic tracking of products and services offered to customers. EachSKU may be attached to an item, variant, product line, bundle, service,fee or attachment. SKUs are not always associated with actual physicalitems, but more appropriately billable entities. Each merchant using theSKU method will have their own personal approach to assigning thenumbers, based on regional or national corporate data storage andretrieval policies. SKU tracking varies from other product trackingmethods which are controlled by a wider body of regulations stemmingfrom manufacturers or third-party regulations.

As described, an indicia reader or scanner may act as multiple devicesat all times without reconfiguration. For example, it may operate asboth a primary POT scanner and a serial port emulation device. Firmwarefor the POT scanner may be updated without removing the scanner from thePOT by utilizing the scanner as a serial port emulation device. Dataconcerning retail type transactions may be transferred while operatingin the scanner mode and other data such as operating system firmware maybe transferred to the POT scanner when it is being utilized in theserial port mode.

Scanners and host system may be equipped with the ability toautomatically query and communicate data, such as firmware amongst eachother. Upgrading firmware from host to scanner and duplicatingconfiguration parameters may be performed without human intervention toensure scanners are operating at the same revision and have the sameconfiguration parameters reduces user frustration, down time, dataintegrity and increase efficiencies.

At predetermined time intervals the host may broadcast variousinformation, such as firmware revision, configuration parameters, etc.The host may then download the newer files and update scanners during atime of inactivity.

It should be understood that the programs, processes, methods andapparatus described herein are not related or limited to any particulartype of computer or network apparatus (hardware or software). Varioustypes of general purpose or specialized computer apparatus may be usedwith or perform operations in accordance with the teachings describedherein. While various elements of the preferred embodiments have beendescribed as being implemented in software, in other embodimentshardware or firmware implementations may alternatively be used, andvice-versa. The illustrated embodiments are exemplary only, and shouldnot be taken as limiting the scope of the present invention. Forexample, the steps of the flow diagrams may be taken in sequences otherthan those described, and more, fewer or other elements may be used inthe block diagrams. Also, unless applicants have expressly disavowed anysubject matter within this application, no particular embodiment orsubject matter is considered to be disavowed herein.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An indicia reader comprising: firmware forcontrolling the operation of the indicia reader; and software thatallows the indicia reader to operate as a point-of-transaction indiciareader while simultaneously operating as a serial port emulation devicethat receives data to upgrade the firmware; wherein the indicia readeris a point of transaction indicia reader and data translation occurs atthe point of transaction; and wherein the indicia reader changes adestination port of decoded output data in response to a commandreceived from a host.
 2. The indicia reader of claim 1, wherein theindicia reader has separate physical and logical addresses.
 3. Theindicia reader of claim 1, wherein the host comprises a host interfacefor communication with the indicia reader.
 4. The indicia reader ofclaim 1, comprising a translation interface provided between the indiciareader and the host, being configured to translate data between a hostinterface and a protocol utilized by the indicia reader.
 5. The indiciareader of claim 4, wherein the indicia reader is controlled by thetranslation interface to behave like any class of device regardless ofphysical connection type of the indicia reader with the host.
 6. Theindicia reader of claim 4, wherein the translation interface comprises alink layer and a command layer having a plurality of ports.
 7. Theindicia reader of claim 6, wherein the indicia reader is logicallyattached to a protocol of the indicia reader as a serial port.
 8. Theindicia reader of claim 6, wherein the indicia reader logically behavesas two different devices through any of the plurality ports at all timeswithout reconfiguration of the indicia reader.
 9. The indicia reader ofclaim 1, wherein the host utilizes menu commands to enable ports withoutinterrupting operation of other ports.
 10. The indicia reader of claim1, wherein data being translated is firmware data.
 11. The indiciareader of claim 1, wherein data being translated is firmware data andtranslation occurs at predetermined time intervals.
 12. An indiciareader comprising: firmware for controlling the operation of the indiciareader; software that allows the indicia reader to operate as apoint-of-transaction indicia reader while simultaneously operating as aserial port emulation device that receives data to upgrade the firmware;and a translation interface provided between the indicia reader and ahost, being configured to translate data between a host interface and aprotocol utilized by the indicia reader; wherein the indicia reader hasseparate physical and logical addresses; wherein the indicia reader is apoint of transaction indicia reader and data translation occurs at thepoint of transaction; and wherein the indicia reader changes adestination port of decoded output data in response to a commandreceived from the host.
 13. The indicia reader of claim 12, wherein thetranslation interface comprises a link layer and a command layer havinga plurality of ports.
 14. The indicia reader of claim 13, wherein theindicia reader is logically attached to a protocol of the indicia readeras a serial port.
 15. The indicia reader of claim 12, wherein theindicia reader is controlled by the translation interface to behave likeany class of device regardless of physical connection type of theindicia reader with the host.
 16. An indicia reader comprising: firmwarefor controlling the operation of the indicia reader; software thatallows the indicia reader to operate as a point-of-transaction indiciareader while simultaneously operating as a serial port emulation devicethat receives data to upgrade the firmware; and a translation interfaceprovided between the indicia reader and a host, being configured totranslate data between a host interface and a protocol utilized by theindicia reader; wherein the indicia reader has separate physical andlogical addresses; wherein the indicia reader logically behaves as twodifferent devices without reconfiguration of the indicia reader; whereinthe indicia reader is a point of transaction indicia reader and datatranslation occurs at the point of transaction; and wherein the indiciareader changes a destination port of decoded output data in response toa command received from the host.
 17. The indicia reader of claim 16,wherein data being translated is firmware data.